Enterprise, Oregon
134th Year, No. 41
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Wallowa County’s
community dream
comes true
1,791 prime acres of
Wallowa Lake’s East Moraine
become public land as
Wallowa County acquires
the Yanke Property
Wallowa Lake Moraines Partnership
and Ellen Morris Bishop
Ellen Morris Bishop
Two basketballs seem to be waiting for the return of their players in the devastated Joseph Charter School gym. Available light image, 48
second exposure.
AFTER THE FIRE
JOSEPH CHARTER SCHOOL PREPARES TO RESUME CLASSES
Some buildings cleaned,
ready for students
next week. Classes
to resume Jan. 27
By Ellen Morris Bishop and Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
fter weathering a major fire and
its consequences, Joseph Char-
ter School is putting things back
together. Classes will resume on
Jan. 27 according to superinten-
dent Lance Hohman.
“We are not sure of the timing to return
to the upper classrooms,” Homan said.
“Grades 5 and 6 may have to have classes
off campus for awhile, but we’d like to keep
grades 5 to 12 on campus when classes start
up next week.”
The elementary school, or Lower Level
for grades K-4 should be cleaned up and
ready for students by Monday.
“We are taking every precaution during
this restoration process,” Homan said. “So
when we give the OK to resume classes in
the building, it will be a safe, clean place
for students and everyone.”
The classsroom damage was mainly
the consequence of smoke and particles
spread by the fire in the gym and mechani-
cal room. The cleanup crews have assured
Homan that when students come back a lot
of it will be repainted, and everything will
look brand new.
The school’s office area has already been
cleaned up and there’s a temporary wall
that separates it from the rest of the build-
ing, so that cleanup can continue there. But
the newly accessible office provides a space
for staff to plan their next steps.
A
JOSEPH, Or. – The breathtaking beauty
of Wallowa Lake’s East Moraine forest and
open space was permanently protected when
almost 1800 acres were transferred into Wal-
lowa County ownership late last week.
“This has been an important priority for
the people of Wallowa County,” said com-
missioner Susan Roberts. “Keeping the
moraine as a natural and working landscape
was something that everyone agreed on. We
are doing this for everyone in the County.”
For more than a decade, the Wallowa
Lake Moraines Partnership – a consortium
comprised of the County, Wallowa Land
Trust, Wallowa Resources, and Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department – worked
to acquire the property in order to eliminate
any risk of home development, especially on
the moraine’s vulnerable crest.
At the property sale closing at Wallowa
Title, there was an air of solemnity rather
than celebration as county commissioners,
Wallowa Resources, and the Wallowa Land
Trust all signed the sale documents. In one
very Wallowa County moment, they discov-
ered that the $1,350,382.79 check brought
to seal the deal was precisely $5 short. So
someone opened their wallet and added a
five dollar bill to the million-dollar check on
the table.
Now that the Yanke property’s 17,791
acres is under Wallowa County ownership,
all development and sub-division rights
have been extinguished and the property will
be managed as a working community forest,
protecting native plants, wildlife habitat, and
cultural resources while providing non-mo-
torized recreational access and returns to the
local economy through sustainable forestry
and grazing.
“We couldn’t have hoped for a better out-
come that serves the public’s need for per-
manent protection and access to this spectac-
ular natural landscape,” said John Hillock,
Wallowa County Commissioner and Chair
of the East Moraine Campaign.
After nearly a decade of negotiations, the
Partnership and the former landowner, the
Ronald C. Yanke Family Trust, came to a
purchase agreement of $6 million in January
2019. Fundraising then went into full-gear,
See Moraine, Page A10
Ellen Morris Bishop
The Peterson family shepherds their children home from shelter at the Joseph Community
Center on Thursday, Jan. 16, after a fire caused the evacuation of the Joseph Charter School.
“The reaction of the community here
and our neighboring communities make
me feel very fortunate to be where I am,”
Homan said. “It’s been very humbling.”
The gym has been badly damaged by the
fire. The upper level on the south side, with
weight room and wrestling mats and equip-
ment bore the brunt of the damage. Light
fixtures exploded or melted. All the walls
are now mostly charcoal, weightlifting and
exercise equipment are charred and burned,
and even the iron barbells bear signs tell-
ing rescue from the fire. The wall between
the mechanical room and weight room was
breached by flames that quickly spread
to the ceiling, walls and staircase. Sprin-
klers went off, helping to quench some of
the flames, but the heat, smoke and flam-
ing particles from the open upper level
spread into the gym. Banners melted. Water
flooded the floor. Ceiling tiles fell, as did
the flag and the lights.
See Fire, Page A7
Ellen Morris Bishop
Nearly 1800 acres of the East Moraine, on the
left side of Wallowa Lake, is now public land
owned by Wallowa County. In the near future,
the county and other members of the Wallowa
Lake Moraine Partnership will develop a plan
for public access and sustainable grazing
and timber harvest that will be available for
public review.
Aluminum-Alzheimer connection grows more certain
George Perry
University of Texas, San Antonio
A new study published in
the Journal of Alzheimer’s
Disease (JAD) supports a
growing body of research
that links human exposure to
aluminum with Alzheimer’s
disease (AD). Researchers
found significant amounts of
aluminum content in brain
tissue from donors with
familial AD. The study also
found a high degree of co-lo-
cation with the amyloid-beta
protein, which leads to early
onset of the disease.
“This is the second study
confirming significantly high
brain accumulation in famil-
ial Alzheimer’s disease, but
it is the first to demonstrate
an unequivocal association
between the location of alu-
minum and amyloid-beta
in the disease. It shows that
aluminum and amyloid-beta
are intimately woven in the
neuropathology,” explained
lead investigator Christo-
pher Exley, Keele Univer-
sity, Staffordshire, UK.
An association between
aluminum and amyloid-beta
has been suggested for over
40 years. In an earlier study,
brain tissue from donors in
the United Kingdom diag-
nosed with familial AD
showed significant accumu-
lations of aluminum. To fur-
ther understand this relation-
ship, in the current study the
researchers measured alumi-
num in the brain tissue of a
cohort of Colombian donors
with familial AD who shared
a specific mutation. The
mutation leads to elevated
levels of amyloid-beta, early
disease onset, and an aggres-
sive disease etiology. The
levels were compared with
a control set of brain tis-
sues from donors with no
diagnosis of neuropatholog-
ical disease. They also used
aluminum-specific fluores-
cence microscopy imaging
to investigate the relation-
ship between aluminum and
amyloid-beta in familial AD.
The results were strik-
ing. The aluminum con-
tent of the brain tissue from
donors with the genetic
mutation was universally
high, with 42% of tissues
having a level considered
pathologically significant,
and the levels were signifi-
cantly higher than those in
the control set. The imag-
ing studies identified alu-
minum deposits in all brain
tissues studied. They were
predominantly co-located
with amyloid-beta in senile
plaques and occasionally in
the brain vasculature. Alu-
minum was also found sep-
arately from amyloid-beta in
intracellular compartments
including glia and neuronal
axons. The results strongly
suggest that genetic predis-
positions known to increase
amyloid-beta in brain tissue
also predispose individuals
to accumulate and retain alu-
minum in brain tissue.
“Compelling localization
of aluminum with a central
player in AD, amyloid-beta,
strengthens the link of alu-
minum to the pathogenesis
of AD,” commented George
Perry, University of Texas at
San Antonio.
“One could envisage
increased amyloid-beta in
brain tissue as a response
to high levels of alumi-
num content, or that alumi-
num fosters the accumula-
tion of amyloid-beta,” said
Dr. Exley. “Either way, the
new research confirms my
resolve that within the nor-
mal lifespan of humans,
there would not be any AD
if there were no aluminum in
the brain tissue. No alumi-
num, no AD.”